People

Current Members

Professor Scott Cockroft
Prof. Scott L Cockroft

Scott was born and raised in Calderdale, West Yorkshire. He joined the School of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh in 2007 as lecturer and was promoted to Professor in 2019 as Personal Chair of Supramolecular Chemistry. Prior to this he conducted postdoctoral work with Prof. M. Reza Ghadiri at The Scripps Research Institute, California (2006-2007) and his PhD with Prof. Christopher A. Hunter FRS at the University of Sheffield (2002-2006). He enjoys a good red wine and Shpongle. His eyes are often "funny" due to myasthenia gravis.

Dr Dylan George
Dr Dylan George
Postdoc, 2022-

Dylan joined the Cockroft and Horrocks group in 2022. He completed his PhD at the University of Sheffield developing single-molecule microscopy instrumentation for drug discovery applications. He is now focussing on using super-resolution microscopy to study transmembrane rotary motors. In his spare time he enjoys hiking, travelling and playing rugby.

Dr Krzysztof Bąk
Dr Krzysztof Bąk
Postdoc, 2022-

Krzysztof joined the Cockroft group in 2022 and is a working on transmembrane molecular machine synthesis/assembly and patch-clamp characterisation. Previously he undertook a Postdoc with Prof. Paul Beer at the University of Oxford.

Dongning Sheng
Dongning Sheng
PhD Student, 2022-

Dongning joined the Cockroft group from Beijing University of Chemical Technology, where he worked on catalysis projects both from a synthetic and computational perspective. He is currently working on new methods of OH-group bioconjugation. Dongning enjoys playing classic video games such as ‘Touhou Project’ and watching anime.

Tim Spankie
Tim Spankie
PhD Student, 2021–

Tim secured an EASTBIO PhD studentship to join the group in 2021 to study the computational electrophysiology of transmembrane molecular machines, working in collaboration with Ulrich Zachariae (School of Life Sciences, Dundee). When not computing he enjoys some recurve Archery, embracing his Nottinghamshire roots, or extremely uncompetitive Table-tennis!

Louis Gravillier
Louis Gravillier
PhD Student, 2020–

Louis joined the Cockroft group in 2020. He works on a PhD project examining the molecular origin of macroscopic viscosity and friction. Outside of the lab, Louis enjoys riding and working on his bike, playing videogames and cooking.

Daniel Edwards
Daniel Edwards
PhD Student, 2019–

Dan secured an EASTBIO PhD studentship to join the group in 2019 where he will be working in collaboration with Dr Amanda Jarvis (School of Chemistry, Edinburgh) to examine catalytic reactions inside modified protein nanopores. Dan is a keen musician and enjoys hiking especially in his local area on the Norfolk Broads, unfortunately a long way from Edinburgh!

Ivan Smoliar
Ivan Smoliar
PhD Student, 2019–2022 writing up;

Ivan Smoliar joined the Cockroft group in 2019 to work on a PhD project examining the fundamental principles governing interactions and chemical reactions. In his spare time he enjoys playing double bass.

Graduated PhD Students (and destinations)

Dr Dominic Cairns-Gibson
Graduated 2023
Education and Engagement Development Officer at Edinburgh BioQuarter

Dr Andrew West
Graduated 2022
Postdoc with ‪Kurt Gothelf (University of Aarhus, Denmark)

Dr Alex Elmi
Graduated 2021
Research Scientist, Sygnature (Nottingham, UK)

Dr Rebecca Burns
Graduated 2020
Student Adviser (School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh, UK)
Previously, Assistant Professor (Heriot Watt, UK)

Dr Nicole Meredith
Graduated 2019
Formulation Scientist at Lonza (Livingston, UK)

Dr Qingshu Zheng
Graduated 2019
Assistant Research Fellow (Group leader/Lecturer at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China)
Previously, postdoc (Fudan University, China)

Dr Dominic Pascoe
Graduated 2018
Postgrad Medicine (St. Andrews/Dundee, UK)

Dr Antoine Bader
Graduated 2018
ATDBio (Oxford, UK)

Dr Nicholas Dominelli Whiteley
Graduated 2017
Postgrad Medicine (St. Andrews/Dundee, UK)
Previously, postdoc with Marcey Waters (University of North Carolina, USA)

Dr Justinas Slikas
Graduated 2017
Senior Scientist at Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Science Solutions, Lithuania
Previously, Research scientist at Base4 Innovation (Cambridge, UK)
Previously, postdoc with James Murray (Imperial, UK)

Dr Kamila Muchowska
Graduated 2016
Associate at McKinsey, London
Formerly, Chargée de Recherche (group leader at CNRS University of Strasbourg, France)
Previously, postdoc with Joseph Moran (CNRS University of Strasbourg, France)

Dr Thomas Hubbard
Graduated 2015
Synthetic Chemist at Innospec

Dr Catherine Adam
Graduated 2015
Postdoc with Asier Unciti-Broceta (Edinburgh, UK)
Previously, postdoc with Jonathan Clayden (Manchester/Bristol, UK)

Dr Matthew Watson
Graduated 2015
Postdoc with Roman Tuma and Sheena Radford (Leeds, UK)

Dr James Brown
Graduated 2014

Dr Lixu Yang
Graduated 2012
Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering (Chongqing University, China)
Previously, postdoc with Neil Champness (Nottingham, UK)

Dr Ma Long
Graduated 2012 (co-supervised with Prof. Anita Jones)
Postdoc with Prof. David O'Hagan (St Andrews, UK)

Dr Ioulia Mati
Graduated 2012
Postdoc with Euan Kay (St Andrews, UK)
Previously, postdoc with Colin Campbell (Edinburgh, UK)

Former postdocs (and destinations)

Dr Sam Oldknow
Postdoc, 2018–2019
Postdoc with Dr. Paul Lusby (Edinburgh, UK)

Dr Marius Haugland
Postdoc, 2017–2018
Postdoc with Prof. Ed Anderson (Oxford, UK)

Dr Stefan Borsley
Postdoc, 2016–2018
Lecturer in Organic Chemistry, University of Manchester
Postdoc with Prof. Dave Leigh FRS (Manchester, UK)

Dr Jamie Withers
Postdoc, 2018
Postdoc with Prof. Glen Burley (University of Strathclyde, Glasdow, UK)

Dr Dominic Pascoe
Postdoc, 2018
Postgrad Medicine (St. Andrews/Dundee, UK)

Dr Antoine Bader
Postdoc, 2017–2018
ATDBio (Oxford, UK)

Dr James Cooper
Postdoc, 2015–2017
Lecturer in Organic Chemistry (University of Reading, UK)
Postdoc with Prof. Sir J. Fraser Stoddart (Northwestern University, USA)

Dr Matthew Watson
Postdoc, 2015–2017
Postdoc with Roman Tuma and Sheena Radford (University of Leeds, UK)

Dr Michael Ochsenkuehn
Postdoc, 2010–2011
Researcher at (New York University, UAE)
Postdoc (KAUST, Saudia Arabia)

Dr John Brazier
Postdoc, 2009–2010
Postdoc with King Kuok (Mimi) Hii, (Imperial College London, UK)

Project students and research visitors

Anna-Luisa Warnke
Visiting Postdoc, 2023
 
Wenkai Zhang
BSc MChem Student, 2023-2024
 
Elizabeth Hill
BSc MChem Student, 2023-2024
 
Natasza Rybacka
4P MChem Student, 2023
 
Cameron Anderson
4P MChem Student, 2023
 
Karen Sato
4P MChem Student, 2023
 
Nojus Osinskas
4P MChem Student, 2022
 
Antonio Fiorentino
Visiting Student from Bologna, 2023
 
Yinxuan Zhang
MSc Student, 2023
 
Ryan Ferguson
4P MChem Student, 2022
 
Elena Gil Gutiérrez
4P MChem Student, 2022
 
Falk Meier
4P MChem Student, 2022
 
Nicholas Runcie
4P MChem Student, 2022
 
Justin Ko
BSc Student, 2022
 
Gleb Butyagin
Summer Student, 2022
 
Nojus Osinskas
Summer Student, 2022
 
Jianning Lu
MSc Student, 2022
 
Chenfeng Zhang
MSc Student, 2022
 
Katie Brown
4P MChem Student, 2022
 
Allison Findlay
4P MChem Student, 2022
 
Adrian Popescu
4P MChem Student, 2022
 
Jonathon Walker
4P MChem Student, 2022
 
Eve Bryson
BSc Studemt, 2021-2022
 
Jessica Flowers
MChem Student, 2021-2022
 
Yuqing Zhang
MSc Student, 2021
 
Sopika Balaskanthan
4P MChem Student, 2021
 
Rachel Feeney
4P MChem Student, 2021
 
Botond Gemesi
4P MChem Student, 2021
 
Cameron Webster
4P MChem Student, 2021
 
Xiao Hu
Bsc Student, 2020-2021
 
Juliet Barclay
MChem Student, 2020-2021
 
Felix Roughton
BSc Student, 2019–2020
 
Andrew Cummins
4P MChem Student, 2019
 
Peter Ning
4P MChem Student, 2019
 
Reinis Rudzitis
Summer Student, 2019
 
Vesela Zarkina
Afton Chemical Scholarship, 2019
 
Kris Chambers
4P MChem Student, 2019
 
Laura Fineron
4P MChem Student, 2019
 
Louise Biden
BSc Student, 2018–2019
 
Artem Goldort
BSc Student, 2018–2019
 
Hubert Liu
MChem Student, 2018–2019
 
Sarah Aitken
4P MChem Student, 2018
 
Adelina Ivanova
4P MChem Student, 2018
 
Mia Kapun
4P MChem Student, 2018
 
Lydia Bowman
MChem Student, 2017–2018
 
Dominic Cairns-Gibson
MChem Student, 2017–2018
 
Karina Krogstrup
Technical Intern, 2017–2018
 
Katie Grant
Deans Summer Scholarship, 2017
 
Alvaro Gallego
4P MChem Student, 2017
 
Lucy McQuade
4P MChem Student, 2017
 
Mohanish Borana
MSc Student, 2017
 
Ewan Bain
MChem Student, 2016–2017
 
Militsa Yaneva
MChem Student, 2016–2017
 
Tay McDonald
4P MChem Student, 2016
 
Simon Thornewill von Essen
4P MChem Student, 2016
 
Anja Neumann
MSc Student, 2016
 
Simon Sponholtz
Technical Intern, 2016
 
Alethea Han Hui He
BSc Student, 2015–2016
 
Christopher Evans
MChem Student, 2015–2016
 
Amy Marshall
BSc Student, 2014–2015
 
Sarah McArthur
MChem Student, 2014–2015
 
Fredrik Karlsson
MChem Student, 2014–2015
 
Jakob Jessen
Technical Intern, 2014–2015
 
Hannah Paterson
MChem Student, 2013–2014
 
Ksenia Aleksankina
MChem Student, 2013–2014
 
Daniel Dodd
BSc Student, 2014
 
Ben Moss
BSc Student, 2013–2014
 
Ksenia Aleksankina
MChem Student, 2013–2014
 
Dominic Pascoe
MChem Student, 2013–2014
 
Shona Cammack
MChem Student, 2012–2013
 
Lucy Antrobus
MChem Student, 2012–2013
 
Calum Ferguson
MChem Student, 2012–2013
 
Graeme Rogers
MSc Student, 2012
 
Gemma Gowrie
MChem Student, 2011–2012
 
Jack Harris
MChem Student, 2011–2012
 
Hayat P. H. Saifuddin
MSc Student, 2011
 
Susie Metcalfe
BSc Student, 2010–2011
 
Nicholas Dominelli Whiteley
MChem Student, 2010–2011
 
Basile Wicky
Visiting Student, 2010–2011
 
Eugene Guobin Choon
Visiting Student, 2010
 
Urszula Wolkowicz
BSc Student, 2009–2010
 
Catherine Adam
MChem Student, 2009–2010
 
Sophie Spurr
MChem Student, 2009–2010
 
Kirsten Strain
MChem Student, 2008–2009
 
Tereza Vokata
MChem Student, 2008–2009
 
Stefanie Noe
Visiting Student, 2008–2009
 
Bobby Oag
BSc Student, 2007–2008
 

Group Photos

Cockroft group, Winter Social, Wedgewood Edinburgh, November 2023.
Cockroft group, Autumn BBQ, Edinburgh, September 2023.
Cockroft group, BABA, Edinburgh, November 2022.
Cockroft group, Autumn BBQ, Edinburgh, September 2022.
Cockroft group, Edinburgh, August 2022.
Cockroft group, Edinburgh, May 2019.
Cockroft group, Winter Festival Edinburgh, December 2017.
Cockroft group and Scott's bride, Loch Ard, September 2015.
Cockroft group, Hanam's Restaurant, Edinburgh, December 2013.